Tre Boston on ‘soft’ NFL safety market: ‘It’s hard to see this foolishness go around for this long’

Tre Boston rattles off his accomplishments: Top five in the NFL with five interceptions last season, first on the Los Angeles Chargers in that category, second in tackles.

And yet, there he is, still a free agent.

‘I think I definitely excelled in being able to show that I’m one of the best in the league’

That there are other safeties still unsigned doesn’t give Boston, a four-year veteran, any comfort whatsoever.

“It’s not up to me to say what I thought, but if this is truly about football, if it’s about stats and actually being able to play, I think I definitely excelled in being able to show that I’m one of the best in the league,” Boston, who spent his first three seasons in the league with the Carolina Panthers, told Bruce Murray and Kirk Morrison on the SiriusXM Blitz. “But we see what’s going on. … There’s a lot of, ‘Oh, we can’t put a finger on it … Oh, we don’t know, we can’t talk about it.’ But why aren’t people trying to figure out what’s going on? But I guess we can continue to call it a soft, slow market.”

‘None of us are getting close to what we want’

Boston wouldn’t specify what he was implying, other than to reiterate that he and other veteran free-agent safeties either haven’t received offers or the ones they’ve had aren’t anywhere near what they’re seeking. He mentioned being disappointed by visits he made to the Indianapolis Colts — saying he did not speak with the coach, general manager or defensive coordinator — and Arizona Cardinals, calling the Cardinals’ offer “very, very disrespectful.”

“None of us are getting close to what we want,” Boston said. “A couple of us have no offers, a couple of us have a couple offers. And the rest, we’re just trying to hear what the rest will do. But if I told you the guys that you named off are only worth a million dollars, what would you tell me? It’s that kind of predicament we’re truly in. You’re talking about guys who made $6 million, $5 million, now being offered a $1 million. Why do you do that? You do that to keep the cattle where they’re at.

‘There’s never been a market that’s gone on this way’

“People, they’re acting oblivious to something that they truly couldn’t put a hand on. For me, it’s just kind of hard to see this foolishness go around for this long. There’s never been a market that’s gone on this way. You go top five in any position you’ve ever wanted, it’s never gone this late. It definitely hurts me to truly having to be quiet in this, because I think we all know the tell of the tale.”